The present invention relates to dialing services being provided at a mobile handset and remote provisioning therefor, and, more particularly, but not exclusively to such dialing services when configured for roaming users.
The services are mainly in the area of dialing, and are covered by previous patent applications, including U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/674,639, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/739,881, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. The main services are ICA (Intelligent Call Assistance or Intelligent Call Completion), HSC (Home Short Code), GDA (Global Direct Access), WWN (World Wide Number) and iVPN (International VPN). Another relevant service is the preferred network for roaming, which is taught in Starhome U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/806,281, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
There follow brief comments on some of these services.
Intelligent Call Completion:
Dialing services include intelligent call completion, which comprises correction of wrongly dialed numbers, especially where international dialing is concerned. The service provides for actual automatic correction of the number, or alternatively provides the user with the information he needs to determine that he has dialed wrongly.
The logic for the intelligent call completion requires a set of rules defining how to fix the dialed number, usually based on length and prefix. For roaming, the rules may vary from one country to another, due to local regulations, behavior while an international prefix or the ‘+’ sign is missing, etc. Furthermore the rules will vary for given calling telephones since different roaming users come from different countries. Any gateway carrying an intelligent call completion service firstly has to ensure that calls originating from roaming users are somehow identified and reach the responsible gateway, and then the gateway has to provide rules customized for the different users and their countries of origin.
Home Short Code (HSC):
Another service that is provided to the roamer is the home short code. Different home networks have defined short codes, some of which are defined per network and some of which are defined per country or per group of countries. Thus the short code 911 obtains the emergency services in the USA, whereas 999 is the equivalent in the UK. An Englishman roaming in the United States and requiring the emergency services might attempt to dial 999. Without any attempt at modification the short code he dials will simply not be recognized. The HSC service enables the roamer to use his home network short codes while abroad. Without this service the home short code is not recognized by the visited network and the call is rejected. With the above service the network uses logic, located at a gateway, to recognize the short code and deal with it appropriately. Thus a home short code for calling voicemail can be recognized and the user connected to his home voicemail. A home short code for calling the emergency services can be recognized and translated into the local short code for calling the emergency services. Thus in both cases the user dials the short code he is used to and he is provided with the service he expects.
Now, although the short codes are defined by the home network, not all of them can be enabled for all visited networks (VPMNs). Hereinafter the term VPMN is used for a network that the user is connected to as a roaming user. Sometime there are collisions with local visited network short codes. Thus dialing 999 in the United States would not have the desired effect if the code 999 were in fact dedicated to another service at that network. The call would simply not reach the gateway in the first place.
Furthermore sometimes there may be specific billing issues for some of the numbers. In other cases the VPMN, is willing to enable only some of the home services, perhaps for a limited period of time only. These restrictions result in a situation where the list of home short codes available for the roamer is VPMN dependent and which in fact changes dynamically.
Another service that is provided is the iVPN, or International access to a virtual private network. A virtual private network is typically a corporate network which allows members to call each other on their mobile telephones as if they were extensions on the same switchboard, that is dialing only their extension numbers. International access to such networks requires that somehow the roaming network recognizes the extension numbers as short codes when they are dialed from that given telephone.
In order to combine all the above services, intelligent call correction, home short code and International VPN access, into one package of services, one issue that has to be faced is that of collisions, that is numbers that are ambiguous in the light of two networks being joint points of reference. Any solution is required to implement a common logic for eliminating collisions. A VPN extension can be a home short code as well, and there is a need to identify the collision and determine what is to be the appropriate action. However, as will be appreciated, the collision issue is different for different roaming users. Different users have different home networks and some are members of a VPN and others are not.
Another service is the WWN, or World Wide Number, which enables the roamer to dial for brand names, such as AVIS or HERZ, or to services such as PIZZA or TAXI, and receive the local office of the service provider, irrespective of which country he is dialing in. Such a service is described in greater detail in the above mentioned Starhome patents.
Preferred Network
Preferred network selection is a service implemented, possibly within the telephone SIM card, to select a roaming network from among a list of preferences. The list is stored in the PLMN file and activated during handset power on or during SIM initialization.
One problem with static lists of network preference, that is lists loaded to the SIM before providing the handset to the end user, and which do not get changed subsequently, is that there simply is not enough room on a SIM card to provide enough data for all countries. This is true even if the most unlikely travel destinations are excluded.
Furthermore, static lists, are insufficient because new roaming agreements are signed, tariffs change, and therefore the underlying rationale for treating certain networks as preferred demands that the lists change dynamically.
In addition, the best answer as to which network is preferred may depend on the given user. Network preferences may be community-based, meaning that certain groups of users who may have different priorities may be best served by different preference orders. Prepaid users might have certain preferences and heavy GPRS data users might have other requirements. In the future 3G cellular world there may be a need for different preferences per individual services. Thus the ideal roaming network for voice services may be different from the one that is ideal for data services.
The above-described services are currently typically provided from network servers, gateways, which first identify roaming devices and then route the calls to a dedicated gateway which carries the logic for providing the services. However not all networks have such a gateway and furthermore roaming users are often transferred automatically from one network to another as different networks give stronger and weaker signals. Thus a particular roaming user may arrive in a given country and get used to the fact that he can use his home shortcode for obtaining his voicemail. Subsequently he is transferred to another network and then he discovers that he cannot read his voicemail at all since his new network does not have gateway support.